in all with him and besides it hee makes no account of any thing A Tyrant is ordinarily so close by nature and so enured by Art to conceale his intent that when hee would willingly bee understood hee cannot sometimes make them understand them For not only men know not what hee thinkes but many times they understand not what he sayes They agree that David should hide himselfe and Ionathan should observe what the King saith when on the first day of the moneth he should note Davids absence from the table and that by a signe betweene them hee should make knowne his fathers intent Then they depart as under renewing their oathes and covenants of friendship THe first day of the moneth being come Saul seeing that David appeared not flattering his desire hee would not beleeve that David absented himselfe for feare but rather for some uncleannesse when he sees him not appeare on the second day hee asketh Ionathan what is become of David who answereth that hee is gone to celebrate the solemnity then Saul reproachfully reproveth his sonne for preferring his friendship with David before matter of State by reason that while David lived hee could not be established in the Kingdome To chastise an offence committed is proper to the Law that which would be committed is reserved to God that which may be committed is peculiar to a Tyrant when it is not justice but a point of State that seekes the life of a subject there is scarce any remedie if David had offended he might have hoped for pardon and haply have obtained it But where there iâ— no offence there can be no recourse to clemencie nor expectation of it Those merits that would have countervailed his faults doe condemne his innocencies A great occasion it muâ—â— hee to put an innocent to death and because it is great it is insuperable When justice hath had her course in condemning shee leaves Clemencie her place to absolve but where it is injustice to condemne the putting to death proceeds of selfe interest It is good for him that dyes if hee dye innocent but in regard of the world it is better being guilty when he is condemned Hee that hath done an offence and demands pardon speakes not a word but to the Princes praise hee confesseth his fault declareth the vertue of Justice in the Prince and in demanding his pardon he shewes that hee doth also beleeve the vertue of clemencie to be in him But all the words of the innocent sound to the blame of the Prince hee shewes him to bee unjust hee declares him to be a Tyrant hee seekes not to pacifie him he incenses him and cannot hope for mercy because hee cannot aske it if hee pray the Prince to spare him his life hee must needs discover the cause that moves him to take it away and because hee discovers it hee is made worthie of Death Ionathan demands of Saul for what offence hee doth persecute David but the King in a rage casts a speare at him and he flies THere is nothing more offensive to a Prince than to require him to declare what he desires to conceale The word why or when imports an Interrogation ought never to bee found in their mouthes that treat with Princes The interrogating hath I know not what superiority because it obligeth one to answer and Princes are not to be obliged but rather to be obeyed Ionathan riseth from the Table in a great anger he goes the next morning where David was and gives the signe according to their agreement David comes out of the place where hee was hid Ionathan informes him of his successe and reiterating the oathes of their Confederacie and the tokens of their Amity not without tender teares they depart asunder WHat thing is Friendship It is a union as one may say of two soules in one bodie which in a sort doe informe it if not truly yet vertually and if a soule be so much grieved when it is to depart out of an earthly body which it informed why should it not also bee grievous to depart from another soule which she loved Such a departure should be but as a death were it not that the distance of place doth not breake off the union of those things that doe not possesse any place But as in the parting of frieÌ„ds the souls are not so much afflicted the bodies are grieved in forgoing the fomentation of those spirits that were a consolation to them It is not credible that Nature having permitted us spirits to offend us with hath not also granted that the spirits of a friend should bee comfortable unto us Otherwise the spirits of Hatred and of Love should be the selfe-same David flieth and commeth to Nob to Achimelech the Priest who marvelling to see him alone demands the occasion thereof David answers that hee goes about the Kings service who hath so commanded HEe saith truth that hee goes about the Kings service for in flying hee doth the King good service by bereaving him of occasion to doe a great outrage His flight is not to escape chastisement for his offences but to avoyd the mischievous requâ—tall of his benefits O the lamentable condition of men of high desert they have two most potent enemies Envy and Feare the one very hardly to be overcome the other impossible nay rather the victorie over the first makes the other the greater Envy like a mountaine it the waters of valour increase is sometimes overwhelmed but feare like a ship the more they increase the higher doth it rise What must they doe then that are so beset with impossibilities Let them couragiously make head against the obstacles of their good fortune if where it is and where not let them give place to the evill It is necessarie sometimes even in a storme to strive against the winde if wee see the haven neere at hand but if it be far off it is better to strike saile and runne adrift than to make shipwrack The most worthy when they are not the greatest become the most infortunate Valour can never clearely be discerned but only in a Prince There because it is profitable to the subjects they reverence and feare it not and because it is an honour to them they commend and envie it not It is so faire a thing that if those two monsters Feare and Envie did not deforme it men would even adore it but haply God permitteth them to deforme it lest it should be adored because it is adored over much when it is not so deformed If it be true that it is agreeable to nature that the best should coÌ„mand it cannot bee contrary to Nature that the better should be feared by him that doth command If the eminency of vertue could bee laid aside perhaps there would not some bee wanting that to lead a quiet life would willingly reduce themselves to that mediocritie that might keepe them from contempt and defend them from envie But as that eminencie is faire and not easie
Lord more than he and not that his Lord loves another more than himselfe This would bee a desire to tyrannize over the affections of Princes which men ought to reverence He that could make his love more fervent than that of the favorite might peradventure make himselfe the greater favorite but commonly men strive to unhorse him by malice and not by vertue because it is more easie to envy than to love Give me leave also further to affirme if without offence I may that it cannot be any blame to have a favorite unlesse men will say that Christ our Lord was to be blamed whose favorite was Saint Iohn One passing by chance neere unto Saul who longed to die and asked him whence he was and the other answering that hee was an Amalekite Saul prayeth him to kill him which hee excuseth O The unspeakable providence of God! he peradventure permitted not Saul to kill himselfe he consented that his sin should kill him One of the Amalekites whom against the will of God hee had saved alive God will have to put him to death That sinner spoke for al sinners spake divinely that said My sin is alwayes against me We have no enemies but we make some nor is Saul alone slaine by his sinne for there be but few men that are not also killed by theirs And it is very particular that one particular should kill them seeing it was the same that brought death into all the world O how pleasant and how profitable are the precepts of God! He is a Physitian under favour be it spoken not onely for the soule but for the body also He hath left us better rules in a few leaves to preserve our health than are contained in the great volumes of the bookes of the Gentiles King Saul dieth after he had reigned many yeeres and with the King dieth a great part of the people which had demanded a King FAvours are not therefore demanded of God that he may doe them but because he will doe them hee doth them by meanes of our prayers they are obtained with the Optative not with the Imperative mood Hee that will command them deserves then only to bee heard when it is to his harme to have beene heard to teach him that is God neither to bee taught nor to be commanded Wherefore then it was that Saul did lose his life and wherefore the Kingdome of Israel went out of his Progeny is easily resolved by them who omitting the manifold other causes have recourse to that alone which is the first and chiefe and prime cause from whose well all the rest proceed But why God willeth the destruction of Kings and Kingdomes would bee easie also to shew were it not the will of God is not alwayes effective but sometimes also permissive Hee wills that such as forsake him lose their kingdomes and that they that follow him obtaine them Moreover how and when it comes to passe that hee permitteth sometimes those that follow him to be abased and those that abandon him to bee exalted I doe not know and others peradventure know as little Those Princes then that are not in Gods favour let them alwayes feare how prosperous soever they are Being not able to alledge any cause of their happinesse they must needs be afraid if they be great they know not why they are so and it is to be doubted that such greatnesse cannot long endure whereof no cause can bee given for which it began He who hapning to come into the house of a fortunate man did suddenly depart thence certainly hee meant it not of them that God maketh happy and successefull but of those whom God permitteth so to be The ruine of Saul came peradventure of his owne great prosperity his being from a base estate exalted to a kingdome confirmed and setled therein with happy successe in stead of making him the more devout made him more confident yea more rash and unadvised Let us not make it lawfull to serve him the lesse who hath prospered us to the end wee should serve him the more as if the gifts or graces which God vouchsafeth us were but for our pleasure and not for his glory A great sort of men offend their God in their prosperity and pray unto him in their adversity yet is hee still the same God when he delivereth us out of misery and distresse and when he overturneth our fortunate courses and proceedings It may seeme peradventure that to deliver out of disasters doth more manifest the Divinity than to abase prosperous fortunes whence it is that men are more confident in his mercies than fearfull of his vengeance There is no man how wicked soever but doth some good thing whereunto he afterward ascribes the cause of his good successe and equivocating betweene the reward and the grace given him hath no feare of losing what he pretends to have deserved On the contrary there is no man so good but he committeth some evill whereunto for the most part he attributeth the cause of his misfortune and equivocating betweene Gods chastising and his exercising of him sends up sometimes his supplications to God when he should rather have sent thanksgivings as if the world which is the place of meriting and demeriting were the place also of rewarding and punishing To conclude let us pray his divine Majestie that he will be alwayes pleased to end the persecutions of the Davids with the death of the Sauls And all to the glory and honour of his great Name in which I end this Booke as I desire also to end my life FINIS Vid. Daâ—
of proceeding cannot alter it because it is naturall to them others will not because they have prospered with it and those ought never to change whose demeanour hath ever beene vertuous That power which is rising because it riseth cōmonly by the meanes of reputation must beware of losing it and preferre it even before life for therewith all its good is lost Politicians have esteemed this rule to be so true that they have made it an universall one and will have a Prince rather to hazard his estate and life than to lose by meanes of Peace Truce or tribute his reputation I subscribe not to their opinion yet doe I agree that if the greatnesse of a Prince consist in his reputation hee ought rather to die than to lose it but if it be founded on store of money and people which are his subjects let him yeeld to the time make peace and truce ever though it bee with disadvantage of reputation let him become tributary though it be to an inferior nation and leave not any thing undone how meane soever so it be not against Gods Law rather than to adventure his estate for any thing is better than to put that in jeopardy If that be not lost it is never out of season to recover whatsoever is lost Its prudence in Princes and no infamy they ought not to abhorre any thing that may augment or maintaine their dominion Private men write such weake rules because they measure them by their owne compasse Every degree of men hath his proper and peculiar kinde of reputation differing each from other so farre forth that many things accounted infamous in one degree are well reputed in another A Prince that hath a great estate never loseth his reputation if he lose not his estate for his estate is his reputation The world is in a confusion in such sort that men of one degree leaping into that of others by confounding the divers degrees have confounded all the world The Merchant will take upon him the Gentleman and the Gentleman the part of the Prince the religious that of the souldier and where the reputation of the one consists in suffering and forgiving of injuries hee leapes into that of the other whiles he seekes to require and revenge I am to be excused if I am long in this matter which is the cause of great errours in the world for if every one would follow his owne profession it would soone be knowne that reputation consists in knowing well how to performe his owne profession David being on one side of a mountaine seeing Saul on the other calleth unto him and sheweth him his garment assuring him of his good will complaineth that he is persecuted but blameth the Kings Ministers and not the King himselfe Saul hearing that malice is imputed to his servants doth not excuse himselfe by them but layeth the fault on himselfe IT is an ordinary thing of male-contented men to complain though not of the Prince himselfe yet of his Ministers That when David doth here out of modesty is done often by others out of subtilty To rise against the government makes the name of a rebellion the lesse odious deceives the people yea many times the Princes themselves for a while who sometimes discerne not at the first the ambition that commeth masked under discontentment Princes ought therefore to have their Ministers about them of singular goodnesse and of tried prudence that upon the first rumor they may be wel assured of the falsehood of such complaints and breake the heads of such horrible Serpents at their first appearing The reverence that the people beare toward the Prince is so great that it would be a difficult thing to stirre them up against him but by first beguiling them and though it bee all one to rise against the government and to rebell against the Prince because either the Prince is hee that governeth or hee that governes is the Princes Minister yet it appeares not at first with so foule a face It is true indeed that an insurrection of the people is occasioned by a bad Minister in which case the Prince doth alwayes amisse to chastise him In the people there is not alwayes one desire covered under another but if the great ones arise against the governement it is not because they are not well governed but because they would be governors themselves to satisfie their demands were to consent to lose the Soveraignty seeing such will not bee satisfied till they obtaine it Samuel dieth hee is buried with honour and is by the people most tenderly bewailed I Know not whether mourning for the dead proceedeth of piety or of meere interest It may favour peradventure of piety to bewaile when hee dieth but not after hee is dead who would not have compassion of his friend while he sees him or imagines tormented with the grievous agonies of death Men are certainly in very great paine for they are in the paine due to a very great fault And who would not after rejoyce to see him departed victorious over humane frailty and to triumph over death it selfe without having left any other spoyle in that conflict than his body and that for a very short time To lament the dead if one may say is then most impious when it seemes most pious and then ought most to bee done when it seemes not due at all The death of the righteous at which wee ought to rejoyce makes us to mourne and that of the wicked which we ought most to lament doth rejoyce us It is no friendly but an envious part to be grieved at the death of that friend whose life may make us beleeve that he injoyes his deserved glory But it is a part of piety to be sory at their death whose wickednesse doth make us doubt that they are cast headlong into hell The world is so full of snares that the good should not desire to bee in it because there they may be corrupted and so great is the mercy of the Lord our God that the wicked should desire to bee therein that they may be amended But if we are grieved in regard of our owne interest is it not more available that our friends pray to God for us than to men He that thinkes he hath lost his friend when he dieth if he beleeve the immortality of the soule and doth not thinke him damned must then beleeve that the Characters of his vertues are lost with God O how true it is that all our errours doe spring and grow from our muddy senses They acknowledge no interest but earthy no happinesse but worldly and albeit man is elevated by his better part unto a more excellent knowledge yet he cannot desire it as hee ought because he cannot know it as it is David went unto the wildernes of Rachan and understanding that there dwelt neere thereabout a man exceeding rich in flockes and other possessions whose name was Nabal he sent unto him on the day of sheep-shearing to
they would not goe with lesse danger if they were separated from whence may bee taken an instruction for them that wil fortifie themselves in a place that they have regard to accommodate in such manner that the fortification it selfe may be able to withstand the incursion of a multitude or otherwise not thinke their strength sufficient to maintaine it with neither fire nor shot David askes counsell of the Lord thereupon what shall bee done and suddenly turnes to follow the steps of the Amalekites THis is the best way to withdraw himselfe out of danger to divert an angry multitude to the true object of their anger that thereby they may forsake the false They finally finde out the Amalekites fight with them and overcome them recovering the prey with the prisoners and the spoile which they had taken David will have divided with those that kept the baggage and were not at the fight THe Captaine of a male-contented company had need bee both valorous and circumspect That heat that stirres up a multitude whether for love to their leader or anger against their Prince groweth soone cold and then gives place to a comparison to which succeedeth repentance the consequence whereof is either the killing of their Captaine or the abandoning of him Neither is it sufficient for the eschewing of such a danger to have once gotten a great reputation time consumeth it and how great soever it be reduceth it to nothing It is necessary to linke it into a chaine not suffering the report of a great action to cease without renewing it with another as great or greater David because his flying from Saul might take from him the reputation hee had gotten in subduing the Giant no sooner begins to flie but hee fights and overcomes the Philistimes that had sacked â—eilah and because that flight is an argument of feare and that feare brings a losse of reputation he makes it knowne that he could twice have killed the King to give his flight the title of reverence and to take away the imputation of feare Afterward being returned to Ziklag that the malecontented might not have leisure to make any reflections on him to his harme and desirous to maintaine his reputation hee oftentimes with honour and profit to himselfe assaulteth the infidels and finally vanquisheth the Amalekites and recovereth that reputation the diminution whereof had brought him into the perill of being stoned The Philistimes fight with the Israelites and have broken the body of their army and slaine three of the Kings sonnes the strength of the whole charged Saul when he turning to his Armour-bearer prayes him to kill him that he might not be a derision to the uncircumcised which when he refused Saul sets his owne sword against his breast and falling on it kills himselfe I Know not how the description of death to bee the utmost of all terrible things should bee understood If in this life the utmost of all delectable things be not to be had why should the utmost of the terrible One of the contraries cannot bee admitted but the other must also bee granted Now to live not being the utmost of delectable things teacheth that to dye is not the utmost of the terrible The not finding in this our world any object that is the last of delectable and of terrible things if we will not suppose the powers without an object makes us beleeve that it is in the other world and in that other world is God seene and not seene But he that described death the last of all terrible things meant it of things in this world which would be true if spoken of the last in number and not in weight for otherwise if it be such in it selfe it must then be alway such unto all And yet we read of many men that have imbraced it to eschew some other thing which wee must needs beleeve was more terrible to them He that wonders at a resolution so extravagant as makes a man kill himselfe may marvell at nature also which being sometimes terrified at death doth prevent it The Armour-bearer of Saul seeing what his Lord had done drawes out likewise his sword and kils himselfe Some Writers are of opinion that this was Doeg the Edomite Sauls favourite who lest hee should bee punished by his successor killed himselfe THe favorites of a Prince that hath a successour if they die not before Saul yet they die often with Saul I know not how to steere them from this rocke there hath beene one that seeing no other remedy made at the soveraignty it selfe and was just there destroyed There hath beene also that turned his backe to the West and sate his eyes toward the East and towards those rayes that would have beene deadly to him had not that Sun beene then under the line of the Horizon As the sons of Princes cannot endure any companion in domination no more will Princes in their love He that thinkes there is no envie betwixt the father and the son is deceived The honours done to the sonne if they increase that of the father doe rejoyce him but if they diminish his they make him sorrowfull which because it falls out but seldome men suppose there is no such thing When the favorite hath hope that by course of nature hee shall survive the Prince it is a hard matter for him not to have an eye to the future toward which if he cast a look he loseth that which is present but hee deserves no favour that desires or thinkes to out-live his Lord The greatest felicity that may befall the former it being not lawfull for any violently to charge upon death would be to end his life just when the latter dieth It is hard to die before him because it is no easie thing to leave one that is his Patron and his Love He that blames Princes for having favorites would have them inhumane and vile What thing is a man that hath no love or wherein may a Prince shew gracious unto others or see himselfe his owne greatnes but in advancing of others and how or why should he advance them if he doth not love them Would they have him alwayes masked would they not allow him any to whom he may unstrip himselfe and discover the secrets of his heart He that will give to Princes that which surely they ought to have leave to descend sometimes from their throne of Majestie and to conferre their inward cogitations with any one hee must allow a favorite If the Prince lay aside his Majestie withall he would grow contemptible if his secrets should bee imparted unto many they could not bee secrets but if he be familiar but to one open but to one hee is then the favorite It is wished by them that are not beloved above the rest that the Prince would love all alike but why should he love all alike since he is not beloved himselfe of all alike A well devoted subject ought to bee grieved that any one loveth his